Who has better aim? High school trap club or Plymouth Police?
Plymouth Police and high school trap club members from Wayzata and Providence Academy compete in an annual Kids and Cops Shoot. The Plymouth Gun Club helped facilitate the event.
A team competition
“We are going to keep score. It’s a team competition here so it’s a team deal,” said Wayzata Youth Trap Team coach Randal Baker.
Thanks to an idea Jim Sable had three years ago, kids and police officers gathered for the third annual Kids and Cops Shoot. Students from the Wayzata and Providence High School Trap Club members made up the group of kids.
“It has come to be known as the kids and cops shoot,” said Jim Sable, President of the Plymouth Gun Club. “The very first encounter these kids have with police is when they get pulled over for speeding on their way home from school. I don’t think that’s the way we’d like kids to first meet police.”
Building community
The students get to mingle with officers and in most cases out shoot them.
Cooper Wilson, who attends Wayzata Central Middle and began competitive shooting last spring, says he did better than his police officer partner.
“He still did pretty good,” said Wilson. “It was fun.”
For police officers, this is an opportunity to use a weapon they don’t often get to use.
“With our handguns, we get a lot of time at the range,” said Plymouth Officer Mike Baloun. “We don’t do this with the shotguns. You know to be quite honest, the kids are probably better than we are.”
A standing tradition
The kids and cops got to do several different games: standard trap shoot, back your buddy, Annie Oakley.
High school trap clubs growing in the west metro. Gun club members and police hope this will become a standing tradition.
“It’s a fun way to kinda-like blend the two communities and foster a better relationship kids and cops,” said student Leah Bergstrom.
There are 50 youth on the Wayzata Trap Team alone. More than 11,000 youth taking part in competitive high school trap shooting across the state.
